A personal blog sharing ideas and observations on start-ups, the vc industry, technology, and life.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Widgetbox Mobile: A Bet on Mobile Web Apps

Today, Widgetbox announced the launch of Widgetbox Mobile, a mobile app service that allows businesses of all sizes to easily make and distribute a feature-rich mobile app in minutes. In addition, we are pleased to announced that Ali Diab, former VP of Product Management at AdMob, joined our board of directors.

Mobile App Builder: make a mobile web app in minutes without writing any code; create a custom app for a fraction of the cost and time of traditional native apps.

Cross-Platform Functionality: create a mobile web app that works on both iPhone and Android devices.

Widespread Distribution: distribute the app through multiple channels including social media, email, text (SMS), quick response (QR) codes, and your own website. No need for complex and lengthy app store approvals—just quick and easy distribution on the customer's own terms.

Ripple Live Updates ™: edit an app anytime, any place and push live updates through the cloud-based online service.

Advanced, Detailed Analytics: detailed insight into how the app is performing to allow customers to continually optimize performance.

Why are we betting on the mobile web? It is our belief that open standards and browser-based solutions, over time, trump native, client-side applications. While today's mobile web is native-centric and app-centric, the promise of HTML5/web standard technology allows for businesses to development, distribute, and optimize highly engaging mobile apps via URLs, QR codes, and text messages.